Additional resources for A Historical Phonology of the Upper and Lower Sorbian Languages (Historical Phonology of the Slavic languages)

Example text

One could assume, for example, that metathesis and jer-Ioss in So were incomplete in the sense that they left an anaptyctic vowel between the voiceless stop and r, i. , CVSC (where S = r~ /) > CaS VC and Cb/lIS> CaS. One would then have to assume that this anaptyctic vowel was retained in the sequences in question until the mid-fourteenth century. , the time of the application ofassibilation in So. After r bad become assibilized, the anaptyctic vowel was then lost. However.. one would have to provide independent motivation for the existence of such an anaptyctic vowel and its retention over a four- to five-century period without leaving any trace in the name material.

In terms of relative chronology~ it seems that the process, Drat least the conditions that gave rise to assibilation, no longer existed at the time of the metathesis ofHquids (see chapter 14) and the loss ofthejers (see chapter 19). This seems to follow from the fact that where the sequences pr tr kr arose due to metathesis or the loss of ajer.. there is no sibilant reflex of r in MoSo. Conversely, such reflexes exist in P and Cz for r'. Examples include USo tree 'rub', LSo tres < *terti, cf. P tnee [tsec], Cz tflU [tfUi], Sk triet'; USo tTjes 'rub' 2 sg, LSo old tres (by analogy to tres inf), today only trejos < ·tbres;, cf.

Topolinska HPKDP, p. 9. H. SChuster-Sewc. "Zur Stellung des Niedersorbischen im Rahmen des Westslawischen (Die Entwickl ung der ursl. " LISL, ~ 25, 1978. 38 H. Restructuring the vowel system 11. Restructuring the vowel system Following the second palatalization ofvelars and the changes affectingj-cLusters, but probably concomitantly with the labialization offront vowels, the vowel system of CS underwent a basic restructuring, as a result of which long and short vowels changed into qualitatively distinct vowels, resulting in effect in the loss of phonemic quantity.